It never ceases to amaze me how white people love to whitewash American history. On the one hand, they love to remember how “they’’ built this country while completely erasing the sacrifices and contributions of other communities, but when you point out the things it actually took to “build” this country—like the genocide of Native Americans and the kidnapping and enslaving of Africans—then it’s all, “My people weren’t here for that” or “We didn’t own any slaves.”
It’s the combination of blatant ignorance and racism for me.
Which brings us to former Republican senator and CNN pundit Rick Santorum, who has a history of saying some repugnant shit. Last week, while giving a speech at the Standing Up For Faith & Freedom Conference for the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization, he continued the longstanding tradition on the right of “saying shit without actually knowing shit” by claiming Native Americans didn’t contribute very much to American culture.
“We came here and created a blank slate. We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture,” the former Pennsylvania senator said.
Let’s break this down, shall we?
So who is this “we” he speaks of? Well, given that the audience was a conservative youth organization, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say “white people.”
So how exactly did they create “a blank slate”?
“We birthed a nation…” I’m gonna stop right here because the total lack of self-awareness that made this reference to one of the all-time most racist movies about the history of this country ever just boggles the mind.
“There was nothing here.” Just WTF?
Of course, Twitter took the time to point out not only how racist Santorum’s statement was but also how factually wrong it was, too:
Naturally, this also led to calls for CNN to fire Santorum (Honestly, why do they keep giving microphones to right wingnuts who constantly talk out of their asses?)
Maybe next time, Santorum should stay away from history and stick to things he knows—which is absolutely nothing.